Elizabeth, is that you?
Just kidding—it's Kendall Jenner, who landed the coveted 150th anniversary cover of Harper's Bazaar for May. With her wavy, brunette, shoulder-length locks, bold brows and red lip, the 21-year-old looks stunningly reminiscent of a young Elizabeth Taylor. The likeness seems only fitting considering the anniversary of the issue and, in a subtle way, is a nod to both the magazine's past and present.
Much like the screen siren, Jenner has graced the cover before—her debut came in 2015. Meanwhile, Taylor collected a few of her own Bazaar front pages before her death in 2011 and her legacy lives on in the form of recreations, like Katy Perry's colorful cover in September 2015, when she posed like Andy Warhol's famous painting of the icon.
At 21 years old, Jenner has already carved out quite the impressive career of her own on catwalks and magazine covers all over the world. However, having already spent a decade on reality television, the famous Kardashian sibling was the target of critics who doubted the authenticity of her success outside of her family's domain. "I think people were afraid to say it to my face," Kendall said, "but they were probably talking behind my back: 'She thinks she's too cool. She's stuck-up…too into herself.'"
Of course, it wasn't the first or last time her or her high-profile family would be a target. After a stranger banged on her car window after waiting for her on her driveway and Kim Kardashian's robbery in Paris, the family buckled down on security and today, Jenner is followed everywhere by a bodyguard. "I don't feel normal," she told the magazine, "and I like to feel as normal as I possibly can."
Her public life has left her riddled with anxiety that reveals itself in the middle of the night. "I wake up in the middle of the night freaking out," she said. "Full panic attacks. They wake me up from my sleep, and I need to stand up and I pace and I'm freaking out and crying."
The model has also spent the last two years adapting to life with Caitlyn Jenner, who revealed she is transgender in 2015. For her second youngest daughter, it was a bit of a "mourning" process.
"When she told us, and told us that it was going to be a real thing, it was an emotional couple of months," Jenner recalled. "And if I would talk about it, I would cry, just because you're mourning someone…losing someone. The person is still there, of course, but physically you're losing someone. It was my dad who I grew up with my whole life and who raised me. It's an adjustment, for sure."
However, the star soon recognized something important. "You start to realize that this person is still alive. This person is still here. They are still a blessing. They are still awesome. I realized that I should just be thankful that I still have my dad," she said. "It starts to just become normal."
While it may be difficult to manage in such a large spotlight, Jenner is also dabbling in another normal part of a 20something's life—dating. Though she's been spotted getting "cozy" with rapper A$AP Rocky as of late, she denies being anywhere close to marriage or anything remotely serious brewing in her love life. Even if she was, we'd be the last to know.
"If I'm not fully, fully in it with someone, why would I make it public to everyone else? If I don't even know what it is, why would I let the world know?" she said. For right now, she's playing coy.
"I'm doing my thing," she told the magazine with a smile. "I'm having fun. I'm being young."
The May issue is available on newsstands April 25.